vs LAFC

Well alright!!!!!

 

Things are a bit stressed family wise right now, hope to be there for the second home game, vamos, vamos Miami...!!!!!!

 

Starting lineup, anyone? happy that Lee Nguyen is still here in the US

 

Overall, good effort and great showing considering it's the club's competitive debut.
I haven't watched the roster assembly very closely in recent weeks but my thoughts below on the performances that stood out for me . . . Feel free to disagree or agree, I just thought this thread could use more than twitter posts in review of the club's first match.

I liked what I saw from Robinson, he has good speed for his size and he used his size well in his ability to hold the ball when it was played forward. Several times he shrugged off pressure to hold the ball and looks to have pretty good touch. Granted LAFC no longer has Zimmerman who I thought was their strongest defender, I'm unsure why he left but I think he's now in Nashville (?)). Anyway I've never seen Robinson play before this game, but if he's strong in the air he has a good chance of becoming a real threat.

I thought Will Trapp played well, I think in general Inter controlled the midfield play for most of the game. Admittedly I've always liked him at Columbus, and he's improved a ton playing alongside Higuain there -- I hope he becomes our main playmaker. I'd never seen Figal before this game, but I though he was great. I thought Pizarro played a little dainty / cute for my tastes but it's clear he's got skill.

I'm thrilled we have Luis Robles, he's a great competitor and should be a stabilizing presence for this defense in this first season. Technically the goal is on him, getting chipped from the 18 usually means the keeper is cheating a little bit off his line . . . but I'm splitting hairs here as that was a really classy finish by Vela. Robles also had a few big saves to keep the scoreline at just 1 goal.

These are just my impressions of those players who stood out for me, I'd have to watch a replay to remark further on other players / other contributions. But this was a great effort for first-time-out and promising for what we can expect.

 

great read, I wanted to watch but something came up and I missed the game altogether. Kind of bummed we lost but it is to be expected.

what did you think of our defensive setup, do you think they can handle coming up against strong teams?

im hoping I can catch the next game this weekend, im also going to the Miami game against NYRB here

 

If you get the chance to watch this game by replay (ESPN+ maybe has a replay up) I don't think you'll be disappointed in how the team looked. LAFC's the league's strongest team from last season, so Inter didn't dominate by any means but surely held their own for most of it.

defensively -- this is the only game I've seen Figal play but on this one showing he was great, he tackles hard with good timing, and seemed never to be caught out of position. if Inter can counter LAFC's attack I'd like to think they can put up a good effort against any offense in this league . . . but I can't really tell from just one viewing and of course how the midfield plays in defense is just as important as how the backline plays, so I have high hopes but I cannot really tell yet. for me, teams in this league still look different from week to week, you think you're trending one way and then some screwy game sets you back, it seems to happen that way a lot but it's part of the fun in watching every week you never quite know what you're in for (!). I do think you can count on Robles for a couple big saves each week but your goalie cannot always be your best defender, that spells trouble.

as far as I can tell, this year's Galaxy hasn't changed much in the offseason while Red Bull seems to have changed more from last year. I think Inter needs to score first in one of these next games, get the monkey off their back and ride some confidence from that . . . of course they have a lot of pressure as the new team and still figuring out how to play together, but if they play each week the way they were able to play most of last week's debut they'll certainly have chances to win. I think the sooner they notch a couple wins the better, they'll feel like they're starting to solidify and the confidence from that will benefit players / fans / coaches / everyone.

 

I know Figal was a top CB in the argie league for a long while (not sure how he went on in this past season). But he is a highly technical CB but is equally adept at his defensive work, sometimes I worry about his positioning.

Roman Torres used to be another top CB in my opinion but haven't seen him in ages. Just finished listening to Diego Alonso speak and they definitely have high expectations for the squad so i'm thinking they'd look to rack up some wins real soon. Curious to see what Pizarro is like because i've never seen him play but i've read around he's some sort of a playmaker but he plays on the wing, so I guess he's some sort of an inverted playmaker.

I'm hoping this team doesn't develop goal scoring problems because this is typical of a team which emphasizes possession play. (this seems to be the style that they are going for). Miami have had a bit of a rough start to the season starting with LAFC, DC and the Galaxy (2 of those games away). Already lost the first one but I'm hoping we can achieve something in the next two. DC used to be a decent team with Acosta, Rooney, Arriola, etc. Not sure now because I know a few of those guys left.

its obviously to soon to tell but I wonder what the boards reaction would be if Miami don't make the playoffs

 

Well fans will surely be disappointed if Miami doesn't make playoffs. I'm not sure yet about this board -- there are not yet many regular contributors -- and I look at some of the other teams' boards frequently and Big Soccer doesn't seem to be the place people come to discuss like it used to be, I'm sure social media boards now have custom groups and I think some younger fans don't come to Big Soccer as much while the older fans who are familiar with it use it as their regular place. for example, I don't see any posts here from Vice City supporter group or Southern Legion (if southern legion even exists, I don't know) and those are the fans who I'd expect to be here already.

anyway I think there's expectation for this team to compete immediately. Beckham's signing changed MLS, and it was great for the galaxy and for the league overall, but a lot of MLS fans resent the Galaxy's success in the era of the designated player which Beckham was the first. So a lot of MLS fans have a hard on / resent Beckham and would love to see him fail . . . and after how long it's taken to get the club playing I think the pressure is even greater. And a lot of Euro soccer fans think he came here to retire and never even watched him play in MLS, they just compare MLS quality to their home country and criticize it. But I'm a big fan of what he did for the Galaxy and just as much for his commitment to making this happen in Miami -- he could have bailed out of it at any point but I think it was important to him to get this up and running.

He knows it's hard to succeed in MLS, for reasons the other leagues don't experience so much -- the long distance travel, the summer season, artificial fields, change of rosters all the time and the economics of the league that support a few star level players but mostly it's younger developing players, and those two groups of players usually come from different places and different football cultures. He knows the quality overall is less than in Europe but that doesn't mean it's easy to win here because of all these other reasons.

But if you look at the East this year, already Atlanta has lost Martinez and DC has lost Arriola, Toronto's lead players are getting older and it may be tough for them to repeat from the east. I expect Philadelphia to be stronger this year and I expect New England will be more difficult to beat under Bruce Arena, but I think Inter will be motivated to have some success, at least playoff qualification, anything less will be a letdown. but I don't try to predict MLS too much anymore, all these new teams spread the player talent around and I never really know what to expect until I'm watching every week.